Intensive transformations taking place in the system of book communications require the updating of scientific approaches and methodological tools used by book researchers. At the same time, the Russian school of book studies faces a number of difficulties. Geographical and disciplinary isolation of research practices that narrows the possibilities of a comprehensive sociohumanitarian analysis of the social phenomena takes the primary place and can be emphasized among them. The need to include and to interpret conceptual medialogical works in the modern book science discourse determines the relevance of this study. The purpose of this article is to articulate the inherent cross-disciplinary nature of book and reading research and its connection with communication science as a metatheory that explains the historical and cultural development of societies. The subject of the analysis is the work of the Canadian scientist H. M. McLuhan. The research has established the essential characteristics of transitional periods in the history of the dominant means of communication: reformation of society members’ perception and the values shared by them, partial deinstitutionalization and adjustment of functions, goals, tasks of previously existing structures of management and control, integration and cumulation of the cultural and resource potential of communication technologies. Concurrently, the inaccuracies of a purely media-deterministic understanding of the M. McLuhan conception and the impossibility of hierarchical classification of modern media theories have been proved. The practical significance of the research lies in the formation of a pedagogical book science strategy focused on the study of «pre-established» reading models in various communication channels, taking into account the varying degree of influence of micro- and macro-environment factors that determine the polyphony of modern media practices, the structure of educational trajectories, as well as their effectiveness.

The popular science text is described by the author in the context of competition with other media products: films, TV series, video games. Under these conditions, a popular science text acquires new communication characteristics, one of which is a play. The concept of play is viewed through the prism of Johan Huizinga’s work «Homo Ludens, a Study of the Play Element in Culture». The work highlights the main features of play. There are four such characteristics: a play brings pleasure, provides for the presence of special (play) behavior and establishes order, and is also characterized through the tension that arises in the process of playing activity. The play brings pleasure to the player, which in a popular science text is realized through the comprehension of new knowledge, as well as through the awareness of the abundance of sences and interpretations of the text, «flickering of meanings», realized with the help of metaphors. Play behavior is a «play with the addressee»: the use of professional vocabulary allows a reader to identify himself with a researcher. A special playful order is achieved through the use of special narrative schemes that makes it possible to avoid automatism in perception and help to assimilate the content of the text in the most productive way. The tension inherent to any play is interpreted as an intellectual tension associated with the comprehension of new sences, and as an emotional tension, which is achieved via the use of means of artistic expression and strengthens the reader’s emotional involvement in the events described in the text. Each statement is illustrated by examples from popular science works presented in the Russian book market. The author comes to the conclusion that modern popular science texts demonstrate a new property – a playful beginning.

The article gives a historical and book review of Western European publications of the XVIII century on natural law, preserved in the Scientific Library of the Ural State Law University (previously in the collection of the library of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary). Books are considered as a complex historical source with an inexhaustible source-study potential for studying the history of book culture. The facts of the history of the formation of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary library fund at the end of the XVIII – early XIX century and the geography of the spread of the ideas of lawyers of Western Europe, obtained by studying readers’ records, library labels and book signs, are presented. The article not only presents bibliographic descriptions of book rarities of the Enlightenment era (five books in 13 volumes), but also describes in detail all traces of their existence. As a result of the study, the picture of the development of book distribution, librarianship and reading in Siberia in the XVIII–XIX centuries is supplemented.

The article treats digital technologies impact on modern ways of content producing, promotion and consumption. The focus is on interactive book apps as innovative publishing projects that use interactive multimedia content. Interactive book apps are designed for tablets and smartphones and combine different elements (texts, images, video, audio, animation and so on). The author traces back in short e-books prehistory from Kindle gadgets to the time of innovative iPad tablet that resulted in a new generation of e-books. Different types of interactive book apps are highlighted in the article on the base of their purposes and genres (for examp.: fiction, non-fiction, for kids and so on); some of these apps have elements of critical edition. From theoretical point of view interactive book apps can be treated within the frame of the media convergence approach that tends to blur boundaries between contents of different types. Exactly from these stem theoretical and practical difficulties as follows: in the first case – with notions that could be applied to them, in the second one – with tools for their search, identification, systematization and preservation in archives. The article analyzes a number of limitations (technological, software, legal, socio-cultural) that hinder their dynamic development in the modern media system. Main strategies of apps’ output and promotion are generalized and a number of restrictions that hinders their actual development in the media system is analyzed.

Covers and book bindings, especially in library collections, may serve as an important hidden information source for researchers and readers. The article describes the experience of the National Library of the Czech Republic, its Collection Preservation Division, in testing of the X-ray system and Video spectral comparator VSC 8000 to apply non-destructive methods in exploring materials and damages in different layers of the books, and shows its advantages. The systematic evaluation of the X-ray system on the typical examples of book materials of different time-periods showed, that non-destructive radiological methods of book investigation can detect problematic materials and conditions of their destruction beforehand not only in material itself, but in the entire object – the book. It showed that the hidden information can be obtained without breaking or damaging of top layers. Moreover, these materials can be older than the book itself. Video spectral comparator is applied on nonvisible, uneasily recognizable texts, for example faded by light, mechanical or other principle of damage. Thus, gained information serves for historical, art, and scientific knowledge of book binding and texts.

The article concerns the problems of functioning the publishing and printing industry in Siberia and the Far East at the early XXI century: peculiarities of its infrastructure forming, entering the country’s printing services market, the place of a region in it. The paper objective is to represent the modern publishing and printing industry in Siberia and the Far East, its structural components, and determine the likely directions for further development of the regional market to printing product and service producers. The article reveals that, at the region territory, there are printing enterprises of various forms of ownership, production scale, printing technologies used, producing practically all types of publishing products of a wide range – from text editions to special ones. The leaders of the modern printing industry in the region are still the largest regional/area printing houses/media holdings - the flagships of the printing industry of certain territories in terms of provided products and services. At the same time, small printing enterprises start to play an increasing role, responding more flexibly and quickly to changes in consumer demand, changes and challenges of the printing services market. Their number in the region is quite large. The basis of small printing enterprises are district/city printing houses, print shops, advertising agencies, mini-printing houses, publishing centers. One can observe the continuation of the activity diversification of the largest printing houses in the region and the general digitalization of the activities of enterprises in the industry.

The competence of librarians-bibliographers is a topical subject of discussion in the professional community, as well as the framework of the activities of international and national library associations. The dynamically changing external environment is influencing the changing role and requirements of librarians-bibliographers: from traditional custodians of knowledge to new ones – collaborators, research partners, promoters and data stewards. Within the framework of the III International Bibliographic Congress in 2021, a foresight session “Bibliographer’s Competences: Continuity of Development and Break Points” was held, the purpose of which was to build a model of the competencies of a modern bibliographer. The foresight session was based on the system of methods - expert assessment, moderation and facilitation of discussions, brainstorming, as well as a survey of specialists on the strategically important competencies of a modern bibliographer. The assessment of the results of the survey was formed on the basis of the skills constructor. It was built as a result of the analysis of educational standards, curricula, literature on the modern development of bibliographic activity and the competence of librarians. The assessment of the results was carried out according to the standard Likert scale of importance. The degree of competencies importance was considered in 4 blocks: 1) general professional and professional competences; 2) skills in analytical and synthetic information processing, 3) other “hard” skills of a bibliographer; 4) “soft” skills. Each block of the survey was completed with open questions, allowing respondents the indication of any competencies they think should be included. It was determined that the importance of the competencies of a bibliographer for libraries of different types is different, in this regard, the article presents the summary rating of the competencies of a bibliographer, as well as a comparative analysis of the importance of the competencies of a bibliographer working in libraries of different types (university / scientific and public).

Research activity is an integral part of the educational process at the university. The formation of educational programs of higher education includes not only the development of the main components of the of students training, but also the consideration of scientific directions and research in the field of culture, including library and information activities. The purpose of the article is to prove that there is a clearrelationship between the research activities of university teachers, the research work ofstudents and the formation of educational programs with the approbation of the methodology for analyzing this relationship.

Within the framework of the conducted research, the results of the research activities of students and teachers – final qualification papers and publications of teachers of the Faculty of Information and Library Technologies of the Kemerovo State Institute of Culture (KEMGIK) were analyzed; the information obtained was compared with educational programs for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in library and information activities.

The analysis of the topics of the final qualifying works is carried out, the leading directions of student research are identified. The correspondence of the disciplines of the curriculum to the research directions is presented. Based on the analysis of publications and an online survey of faculty teachers, scientific interests have been identified, which are reflected in the educational process. The influence of the results of students and teachers researchs on the formation and implementation of educational programs of library and information activities is considered. The analysis of research activities at the faculty has shown that in the course of the educational process, the results of students and teachers researches are used to modernize the content of disciplines, develop new courses, as well as retraining and advanced training programs for library staff. The authors prove that there is a clear relationship between the research activities of university teachers, the research work of students and the formation of educational programs. 

The article deals with assessing the efficiency of website management (EWM) in order to its development and increase the efficiency of its functioning. The concept “efficiency” in relation to the activities of the library in the web environment is analyzed It was concluded that the efficiency of a library website development can be measured by assessing the dynamics of webometric data, and one can get important information on positive or negative effect of the library website management process. A point-based methodology for assessing EWM has been developed, which makes it possible not only to control the process of managing the library own website, but also allows one the comparison of the evaluation coefficients of the EWM in other libraries, regardless of their type. The obtained coefficient for the evaluation of the EUS library indicates how effectively the website is being developed in the information web space. The proposed methodology is quite flexible and can vary depending on the set of key tools.

An important factor for not only development, but existence of the library, is its work to attract the audience, for which varieties of marketing technologies are used. However, the larger and more diverse the library audience becomes, the more difficult it is to monitor and regulate the completeness of the use of marketing techniques aimed at different segments of users. The purpose of this article is to provide an example of an analysis of a library’s outreach activities through the prism of a marketing policy, allowing the library the streamline of its marketing tools and resources, monitoring of their effectiveness in a comprehensive way, and the identification of possible gaps in the implementation of such activities. The analysis revealed two main gaps in the marketing activities of the SPSTL SB RAS, related to the completeness of the marketing technologies used and the analysis of the audience outside the scientific community. In addition, the grounds were noted, worked out as a part of the development strategy of the library and allow to combine the achievements of the projects implemented by the library in the marketing policy in the future, after the closure of the gaps found. This approach to analyzing the formation of marketing policy is available for replication by other types of libraries, and its use will improve the level of their marketing work.

As part of the implementation of the “Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in the Russian Federation for 2017–2030”, an important task is to develop criteria for assessing the social effectiveness of electronic services in the field of culture– in particular, in librarianship. When organizing children’s reading, the leading role is played by information and recommendation support, which can increase the interest of children-readers in books and create conditions for a safe information media environment. The purpose of the study is to analyze the qualitative characteristics of the provision of recommendatory bibliographic information on the websites of children libraries. The evaluation of the quality of websites is based on universal criteria for optimal provision of elements necessary for informing readers. They are: the quality of content and its relevance, visual design of the site and providing feedback to users. The evaluation is supplemented by two unique criteria: “ensuring the information and psychological safety of children” and “communicative and speech qualities of the texts of book annotations”. The use of such a system in the analysis of online library services on the example of the Russian State Children’s Library and six regional and municipal children libraries has shown that, in general, information and advisory support in the field of children reading management successfully fulfills the task of forming a virtual library space. The main drawbacks of some websites identified are the risks associated with advertising banners and links to third-party resources containing information with the age limit “18+”

The article is a continuation of a comprehensive study of domestic and foreign electronic guides (EG). As the previous analysis showed, they are the most important form of electronic information resources created by modern libraries. The purpose of this article is to analyze EG presented on the official website of the Library of Congress (LC). The types of EG presented on the website of this Library in terms of multidimensional classification have been identified. The three-part structure of these EG was analyzed, including an introductory article, the main part and auxiliary pointers and/or a search string. It has been established that both Russian and American EG are created on such fields of knowledge as social sciences and humanities, history, literature and, to a lesser extent, on health, agriculture and technical sciences. The advantages and disadvantages of Russian and American EG are identified, the most important are the following: the lack of unity in the interpretation of the concepts “electronic guide” and “guide” is characteristic of both Russian-language and English-language terminology; American EG from the point of view of the information medium of of reflected objects have mainly a mixed nature, they include information about both printed and electronic information resources; The advantage of EG presented on the LC website is the active use of internal hyperlinks to the library’s own resources.

The article is devoted to a new information resource of the State Public Historical Library of Russia (SHPL) – the Biography database, which takes into account publications of a biographical and iconographic nature in pre-revolutionary periodicals. The database is part of the reference apparatus of the biography cabinet – a new structural unit as part of the reference and bibliographic department of the SHPL. A distinctive feature of the resource is the combination of biographical information about a person, bibliographic descriptions of information sources and direct links to their digital copies in the “Open Electronic Library” of the SHPL. The practical experience of the SHPL bibliographers in the formation of the database and the creation of normative records is presented, the range of sources used in its formation and the creation of normative records is characterized. Examples of normative records of geographic objects are given. The main search capabilities of the database, available to readers of the SHPL and for remote users are described. The possibilities of further development of the information resource, including information from registers of births, creation of a corporate project with interested libraries and archives of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are considered. This will provide additional opportunities to recreate the biographies of Russians of the late 19^th – early 20^th centuries, and can become a serious help both for professional historians and for a wide range of amateur genealogists studying the history of their famil.

In modern conditions of unstable socio-economic situation caused by the threat to human health due to the pandemic of coronavirus infection, the need for psychological information is significantly increasing. The need to assist modern readers in finding and choosing meaningful, scientifically reliable and accessible psychological information among a huge number of books and online resources has determined the relevance of the topic of the article. The article discusses popular bibliographic resources on psychology, prepared by the Research Department of Bibliography in the Russian State Library (RSL) and posted on the RSL website in the “Bibliographic publications” section: “Psychology for everyone. Index of the best books”, “Psychology. Internet Resources”, including “Psychology on the Websites of Russian Universities”. A scientific and methodological analysis of these resources is given: the criteria for their selection are shown, a variety of forms of presentation of materials is noted, accessibility for a wide range of readers is emphasized. The potential of popular bibliographic resources on psychology in the formation of a holistic view of psychological science among users and providing easy access to high-quality information on psychological issues is considered.